CRTC will hear from public on usage-based billing

On 11th July Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), a federal regulator, will hold one day public hearing into its policy on usage based internet billing. The CRTC had decided to allow the big internet service providers to change their billing practices so they could charge wholesale customers, such as smaller ISPs, by the amount of bandwidth used.

The debate and issues is whether smaller internet service providers, which connect to the large networks owned by companies such as Bell Canada, Rogers, and Telus, would be able to offer unlimited plans.

Smaller providers argue the proposed change would prevent them from offering their customers unlimited access at a fixed price. The larger ISPs argue that unlimited plans clog the networks and inconvenience other customers.

Among the consumers of different blogs there is an ongoing debate around the questions: